Well, I'm sorta simplifying a bit, not going to throw up the old "Please Standy By" thing, I mean really, who cares, right? So, I watched some movies this weekend for the first time in who knows how long. It was so nice to be able to vegge out in front of the tele and not have to worry about being somewhere. So, what did the Netflix fairy bring me:

[and i just found that my work has now blocked photobucket, so no pics until i get home, which means there will never be pictures on here again.]

About Schmidt

Starring Jack Nicholson as a recently retired, widowed and new father-in-law to a strange, strange family in Denver. This is one of those movies that I never can quite put my finger on. I liked it a lot. Nicholson is superb as usual and shows only a miniscule bit of that huge personality he has. The supporting cast is great, I'm not looking up names, Kathy Bates is wonderful. The thing about the movie is it's not really a drama or a comedy, it's sort of undefined, almost a mocumentary, without the mocking, I don't know. There are very funny parts and very poignant parts and at the end, well, it's over. I do think it makes it's statement about the state of society today and the value we place on different aspects of life. As if they only thing that makes a person is their career, their family, their worldly possessions. It makes you think about how you allow yourself to be defined. Are you just your job, your family, your routine? Smartly done, and set in Omaha, I know, Omaha, who knew?

For Love of the Game

Kelly Preston, Kevin Costner, John C. Reilley and baseball. Hmmmmm. Okay. Right before wathcing this, I say that Wyatt Earp was on cable...from 7PM - 11PM....ummm, no thanks. Kevin, buddy, you don't have to make a 3 hour epic all the time, I'm just saying. Well, I don't remember the run time on For Love of the Game, but it went on a little longer than I would have wanted. Anyway Costner is an aging all-star pitcher in the big leagues facing being traded from the only team he's played for or retiring. During his last game, in which he is dealing with that problem and break up of his on again, off again, relationship with Preston's character, he flashes back to what's led up to this point, all the while, quietly putting together.... a perfect game. By the third flashback, second inning or so, I knew wher e we were headed. Then I was treated to bunch of "acty" scenes encompassing this relationship and parralled by the relationship he has with his catcher, Reilly, who apparently is also his mother on the road. Anywho, the baseball part of it was underwhelming, the people part of it was okay, Costner has the ability to make you believe, if just for a moment, that he really is that heartbroken character and Preston was solid as the love interest. As usual, could have done with a lot more John C. Reilley, but he's made a career out of supporting roles. Would I tell you to see this, no, I would rent Bull Durham or Major League or even The Rookie with Dennis Quad. Leave this one on the shelf unless you are a rabid Costner fan.

City of God

Wow. This movie is great. First of all, it's about the favelas or slums of Rio de Janeiro, the movie focussing on The City of God. It's done, almost pulp fictiony sorta, with each plot point sort of told in the backstory of a character as the movie progresses. I can't say enough about 1) how beautifully it is filmed and how fresh the cinematography is, but that may also have to do with the backdrop of the dirty side of Rio; 2) how, even though it was in subtitles, the acting from the entire cast was top notch; 3) how it is based on a true story and that story scares the hell out of me. Then I watched the extras including a documentary on the favellas of Rio and basically, Rio took all of the low income poor and put them in these areas, that are literally walled off from the rest of city. People live in shanties on the side of hills and they are run by drug dealers, who are usually average age 25ish and under. There are kids, literally 9 yr. old kids with AK 47's kiling each other, police, etc. And the chief of police said something very telling, if these people ever organized and came out of these slums, they would take over the city because they are better armed and outnumber the police, but they stay because they have no idea of a life better than the one they are living. It was quite sad, but the movie was spectacular, I suggest you rent it as soon as possible.

A friend turned me on to this film, and I'm sure I'm on some kindo of list now. All I can say is watch it, Google it, watch it online on Youtube, do it. This is one of thos independent conspiracy films, telling the truth about big brother. Now while I don't take anything like this as 100% accurate, it does bring up some good and frightening points. The first part is about religion and how judeo-christian religion is basically a rip-off of earlier religions such as Egytian Sun God, Horace, etc. I don't know that this is really a great revelation, the astrological correspondence of many big religious events with that of the position of the sun and stars is well known. I was surprised at how many correlations there were between the Bible and the Egytian Book of the Dead. Take that with a grain of salt, it's okay that the Vatican wasn't the first to come up with the Christ figure. I think the main thing is having faith in something. It does undermine why religions need all this money and power and control over people, and tries, sorta poorly, to tie that into the rest of the conspiracies floating about.

Which brings us to the rest of the movie. The points it tries to make, I think pretty successfully, though through mainly circumstancial evidence and testimonials, is basically, we the people have no power over our government because the highest eschelons of society, since the beginnings of the nation, but really since the late 19th century through the present, have been manipulating world economies, politics and popular opinion to sustain their own agenda and wealth through generations in the ultimate goal of creating a single, world government that can control everyone on the planet while leaving this ruling elite in charge. They cite many, many, many things, that I won't try to go into here, but there are some very interesting and disturbing items about 9/11, the war in Iraq and the connections between many of our government leaders and the Federal Reserve Bank and that private institution's ablity, seemingly at will, to change the economy and public opinion to obtain certain goals for a very few, very wealthy, minority.

Now, what was really scary to me, is the idea of "Sustained War" or armed conflict that has no goal other than to continue as long as possible so those companies that profit from war time goods and services can continue to profit. It cites the war in Iraq as the latest incarnation and with some good points as to why this a suspect war as well as the "war on terror" and how that is used to manipulate the regular citizen to not mind our rights are stripped away. Watch this movie, and then think about what kind of world is being created. I mean, I hadn't even heard about the North American Union, which is basically a version of the European Union and how with other similiar "economic, political, social Unions that break down the international borders and barriers of sovereigncy" (I just made that up to cover some ground) this World Government will be brought about. Then they went into the the whole thing about RFID chips being implanted in us that will carry all out information, financial, medical, etc. and be used to track our movements. Personally, I don't want to live in a world where I have a chip implanted in me, however, your passports already have one in them.... I know.... and we are going to have these "national ids" and they'll have one in them.... so basically, we're all screwed and will soon be slaves to the international banking class....great. Just great.

I would watch it if I were you, for nothing else than to stay ever vigilant that you don't allow the government to run so much of your life that you lose track of who is serving who.